Term 2, Week 7

Founders’ Day

It was wonderful this week to celebrate Founders’ Day with members of the School community. On Wednesday morning our students from the Junior Campus joined with students from Grades 7 and 8 to celebrate the event at St John’s Church. In the evening, students from Grades 9 to 12 came together with members of our community to celebrate. I often reflect on the great leap of faith that the founders made so many years ago. To open a school in a small town in the southern most state was a great risk. I wonder how proud they would be to see what began 176 years ago has grown into what we have today.  To be able to sit and watch our students perform dance and drama pieces as they did on Tuesday evening, or see them on sport fields, or giving back to the community through so many community service projects across both campuses. We are blesses that they had the foresight to begin the process that sees us where we are today.

It was great to hear this week that our Grade 7 debating team (LCGS2) has made the final of the debating competition.  They will compete in the final at SOC on Tuesday 28 June.  We wish Tori Szramka, Izzy Doyle, Lily Taylor and Annie Howard best of luck for this upcoming final.  Congratulations to Tori who was named best speaker of the competition. Other LGCS teams from Grade 7 and Grade 9 finished fourth in the competition.  A great result for this group of first-time debaters.  Thank you to Phil Smith, Susan Stokes and Matthew Pickering for assisting and coaching our debaters this season.

It was exciting to see out students win the All School Readers Cup held this week held at St Patricks College.  Our team of Laura Akerman, Ify Nwaba, Nina Spotswood, Emily Schipp and Amelie de Jong, accompanied by Cherrilyn Parker, attended and were named champions.  Interesting to note that one of the books they had to present was Sea Country written by local elder Aunty Patsy.  A book about her and her sister, Aunty Betty growing up. This is a book very special to us at Grammar as Aunty Betty’s grandchildren are alumni of the School. Signed copies of this book have been donated by the family and sit proudly in our Learning Hub.

This week the First XVIII boys played the SATIS semi-final for the first time in quite a few years against St Patricks College.  Although defeated the boys played a fantastic game and tested St Patricks for four quarters.

This week the Senior Girls First XVIII played their last match for the year. Thank you to Maddie Fry and Abbey Green from the Old Launcestonians Football Club for coaching this season.  The Old Launcestonians Football Club are forging a pathway with Grammar for a post-school football career with students invited to training with the Old Launcestonians Football Club and free student membership entry cards to all home games for all our football players.  Our Grade 7/8 Girls played their first match this week defeating St Patricks College 117 – 0.  Amazing to see these younger players show their skills and an insight into what we can look forward to moving forward in the girls’ competition.

I hope you have a great weekend with your families.

Gods Blessings

Nicholas Foster
Acting Headmaster

Building Skills for Learning and Life

What demonstrates success in learning? It is grades? Enjoyment? Progress in outcomes? How about using new skills? Or is it being able to do something independently, or in fact, learning how to learn? Indeed, learning how to learn is crucial and can lead to learning gains of 7+ months over the course of the year (Evidence for Learning). Surely it is a combination of these things? However, during this busy common assessment task, examination, assessment and reporting period, some of these measures are given priority over others. 

At Launceston Church Grammar School, one of the ways we try to build an understanding of learning how to learn and to be a “self-managing student” is through our Approaches to Learning (ATLs). These concepts reflect skills and behaviours that apply across the curricula and school to provide a common language for teachers and students to show what we value, expect, and deem important. 

Recently, all teaching staff reviewed and had input into our 2022 Approaches to Learning to capture our current context and the approaches we wish to develop in our students. Importantly, we wanted to build consistent metacognitive language through a clear rubric with evidence to inform the students why they have been given a certain outcome. Please see our new Approaches to Learning below: 

Approaches to Learning 2022

A student need only demonstrate all or most of the behaviours to achieve the relevant approach. In our reports, the following numbers equate to the relevant descriptor: 

1 – Outstanding 

2 – Good 

3 – Satisfactory 

4 – Below-Level Expected 

5 – Unsatisfactory 

This week and next, all students from Grade 7 – 12 will be given the opportunity to reflect on where they feel they sit within this rubric, based on how they approach their learning across their subject areas. They will also be given the chance to think about where they might like to be in Term 4, and thus, set goals for personal growth. These are, after all, important skills for life as well as learning – for instance, the better we can self-manage our attention, we can avoid the addictive ploys of our mobile phones or the power of advertising! If we manage our time effectively, we will ensure we catch that train or plane. And if we engage and persevere, we will experience all the ups and downs of a passionate, full life.  

You will see our new ATLs in your child’s semester 1 report across all their subject areas. Our ATLs represent one aspect of success in our learning journey and are a valuable tool not only for teaching staff but also for students and parents to reflect upon. We hope you find them useful in continuing the learning conversations with your child and with their teachers. 

Sarah Shepherd Co-Director of 7-9

Natalie Stewart Co-Director of 10-12

Recently our Early Learning staff took part in a day of professional learning based on the mountain bike track at the Senior Campus. The day was designed to continue our learning and thinking about nature pedagogy. Kara Spence from Nature. Be in it, was our expert for the day. Kara is an environmental educator with a background of working as a park ranger in Australia and Canada. She works with schools in Tasmania and Victoria to understand Nature Pedagogy, achieve curriculum alignment and develop policies and procedures that enable teachers to bring learning to life.

Our Early Learning staff team are passionate about the outdoors and our student’s complete units of inquiry including learning about nature and the environment. Through the Key Concepts that are embedded within our IB Primary Years Programme, our students learn about what the environment is, how it works, how it changes, what causes it to change, how it is connected to us, and the different perspectives about it and our responsibility for maintaining and improving it.  We recognise that our learners find wonder in nature.

Many bush kinder or nature play programmes focus more on learning and playing simply ‘in’ nature. What our staff have been learning about and planning for is a more comprehensive experience. Nature pedagogy is about forming a sense of belonging in nature and about learning in, from and with nature. Our staff see a benefit for our students both academically, through the acquisition of vital knowledge, and in promoting wellbeing. Academically, the outdoor learning environment provides opportunities for learning that are sometimes lesser or even absent indoors. Early number and early literacy concepts are abounding when you think about the opportunities for collections, time, length, sharing, negotiating and problem-solving that can occur in the outdoors. From a well-being perspective, there are real opportunities to build resilience, social skills, physical strength, balance and proprioception in our youngest learners, just to name a few.

Of course, there is a planned element of risk in a quality outdoor learning programme, which our staff are keenly aware of. Part of the work we have done so far in developing our own approach has been around understanding the risks in our environment and assessing the need to mitigate or promote them. We are seeking mental and physical challenges for our students that are appropriate for their developmental level, but we understand our responsibilities in keeping our students safe. We see a huge advantage for our student’s well-being in developing an approach that incorporates elements of ‘risky play’ and enables our students to develop physical and thinking skills and to learn and grow together.

We look forward to some further staff planning and then communicating to our Early Learning families about the commencement of our first Nature-Based Learning Programme soon.

It was fantastic to see our 7/8 girls take to the Grammar oval for the first game of their season, defeating St Patrick’s College 117 – 0. It was a tremendous effort from the girls, and now we look forward to playing Scotch Oakburn College in weeks to come.

We warmly encourage more girls in Grades 7 and 8 to join the football team. Anyone interested should contact Mr Wattke.

Launceston Grammar Alumni, Henry Youl is set to make his debut for the Senior Australian Rowing Team at World Rowing’s World Cup II in Poznan, Poland over the coming days. Henry will be competing against the world’s best in the Men’s Eight heat, Friday, June 17 at 13:15 (local time). Henry will then progress (fingers crossed) through to the finals to be held Saturday and Sunday.

The program and results for World Cup II can be viewed via the World Rowing website.

Our Grade 6 Leadership Group hosted a morning tea for each of our classes to raise funds for the Cancer Council.  Leaders were assigned to a class and were challenged to create a healthy plate of food to share with their peers. They were required to consider cost, allergies, transport and audience.

Today was a wonderful opportunity for our school community to share time, delicious food and company for a great cause. To date, we have raised over $400 towards vital cancer research, support services, prevention programs, and advocacy.

Well done Year 6 Leaders

Mrs Catherine Langley

Year 6 Teacher